well here it goes this is my 2nd cherokee and ive been working on it off and on now for 2 years ........ this was my first cherokee as i said good bye ......

 

i was sad to see her go but i needed some extra cash to resurrect my new xj from the salvage yard.... i paid $800 for it and it had a blown motor.. rod right through the side of the block... so i needed a motor but i had a really good platform to start with. no rust and it had low miles.. so i got it to the shop asap!!! got a rebuilt motor with 40,000 miles wrecked in the rear also got an extra trans and t case ......

 

there was alot of odds and ends to fix this thing has been sitting in the junk yard for 4 years . so i replaced all seals and gaskets new plugs wires etc..... heres a pic of the motor . a lil trick my dad taught me paint the motor bright orange cause when its covered in mud and grim its a lot easier finding leaks and stuff ........ it really helps when your in the middle of the woods

 

i noticed that the coolant tank that comes in these jeeps are very thin plastic and i know these 4.0 s run hot in the summer so i decided to change the coolant tank to a aluminum beer keg ....... after taking out the bracket there was plenty of room for it

 

well i ran out of money and didnt have enough to get the keg welded so for now ive been running a coolant bottle off of a saab 9 3 its alot thicker and the cap is pressurized . i just made a custom bracket and mounted it in the same place ......i dont have pics of it right now but will soon . ive been running it for 2 years now and it works awesome the only time the motor got hot was when i was out wheelin and i just kicked on the electric fan and it cooled back down so it works fine for me..... here are some more pics of the jeep with the hella lights ..keep in mind these pics are from 2 years ago ........stock lift and tires

 

here are some pics after a lil trail riding about a year ago ........ stock tires stock lift but ready to get it in the air . this jeep is bad *** but it will only go so far without a lift and tires ..................

 

heres a good one.......... sorry crappy cell phone pics that was a deep hole though one side was to the arm rest with water ...

 

these next pics are just to show what kinds of things i was doing with it and the reason for needing a lift and tires lol............

 

and some more with fender triming and 31 10.50 15 .......still getting stuck lol time for a winch..after time you run out of get out of mud free cards lol

 

so i got aftermarket rims which give me a wider stance now and ive got probably 3 inches of lift V8 grand cherokee springs and 2 inch spacers in the front and lift shackles in the back......... going more places but still getting stuck the holes are deep around here its like a swamp....had to call in the recruits to get out this time thanks to my nieces keirstan and naomi and caymin and my brother and a guy in a ford f150 but we had to pull him out with the durango

 

yeah that lil hole in the back window is from the chain snapping it eventually fell out oh well thats why i got spares lol............. i tried to told the guy in the f150 it was a bad idea but he didnt listen ...

 

so i dubbed this hole mr. sinker ......and i kindly thanked the gentlemen for his help.........

 

so that was the last straw i needed a winch ........so i got me a 7500 champion .with the 12' remote...... i was dieing to try it out but i needed to find a way to mount it. i did some research and i want to build a front bumper but did have the steal i needed at the time..... THIS STARTS THE NEXT DRAMATIC CHANGE TO MY XJ ...... FRONT WINCH MOUNT!!!! so i used a resse hitch that i found in the junk yard . here is a pic of the front end striped so the frame and radiator support are shown.

 

then cut a square in the center where the resse hitch is going to be at...

 

and fully welded it to the bottom of the frame.. then i decided to add a way to take the pin in and out and be able to put a lock on it